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Say what we may of the inadequacy of translation, yet the work is and will always be one of the weightiest and worthiest undertakings in the general concerns of the world.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Age: 82 †
Born: 1749
Born: August 22
Died: 1832
Died: March 22
Aphorist
Art Critic
Art Theorist
Autobiographer
Botanist
Composer
Diarist
Diplomat
Jurist
Lawyer
Librarian
Librettist
Literary
Frankfurt/Main
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Goethe
goethe
johann wolfgang von goethe
joh. wolfg. von goethe
j. w. von goethe
Always
Undertakings
World
Translation
Translations
Concerns
Concern
General
May
Worthiest
Work
Inadequacy
More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Impotent hatred is the most horrible of all emotions one should hate nobody whom one cannot destroy.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
All understanding begins in wonder!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Translators can be considered as busy matchmakers who praise as extremely desirable a half-veiled beauty. They arouse an irresistible yearning for the original.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
It is commonly the personal character of a writer which gives him his public significance. It is not imparted by his genius. Napoleon said of Corneille, Were he living I would make him a king but he did not read him. He read Racine, yet he said nothing of the kind of Racine.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
He who is plenteously provided for from within needs but little from without.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The soul-stirring image of death is no bugbear to the sage, and is looked on without despair by the pious. It teaches the former to live, and it strengthens the hopes of the latter in salvation in the midst of distress. Death is new life to both.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A noble soul alone can noble souls attract And knows alone, as ye, to hold them.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The beautiful is a phenomenon which is never apparent of itself, but is reflected in a thousand different works of the creator.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
That which thy fathers have bequeathed to thee, earn it anew if thou wouldst possess it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Analysis and synthesis are both as necessary to the thinking spirit as inspiration and expiration to the organism.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The most original of authors are not so because they advance what is new, but more because they know how to say something, as if it had never been said before.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
It used to happen, and still happens, to me to take no pleasure in a work of art at the first sight of it, because it is too much for me but if I suspect any merit in it, I try to get at it and then I never fail to make the most gratifying discoveries--to find new qualities in the work itself and new faculties in myself.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Nothing will change the fact that I cannot produce the least thing without absolute solitude.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves otherwise, we harden.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Tolerance should, strictly speaking, be only a passing mood it ought to lead to acknowledgment and appreciation. To tolerate a person is to affront him.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
And those whom once my song had cheered and gladdened, If still they live, rove through the world now saddened.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
To make a young couple love each other, it is only necessary to oppose and separate them.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Character is constructed amidst the tempests of the World
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe